19 weeks

Apologies for my lack of updates the last couple weeks! It was busy with the Thanksgiving holiday (which I hosted for my very first time) and with my folks and grandma in town. We had such a great time. I can't believe it is already over! Here's a few pictures from the festivities:

Spinner and Dad hadn't seen each other since May - boy did Spinner miss his grandpa!! (Not sure I can say grandpa felt the same!)

Brian helped the ladies prepare the turkey on Thanksgiving morning (that's my mom and grandma)

And finally, we feasted! The whole family got to together, including my in-laws and Danielle, Alex's girlfriend! (L to R: Henry - dad, Danielle, Alex - bro, Brian, M-I-L Sue, Donna-mom, F-I-L Skip)

Even Spinner got a "Thanksgiving treat". It was the biggest bone they had at PetSmart, and it was filled with some kind of peperoni.

Yesterday we had our 5 month check-up (19 weeks, really, but who's counting!) This included about a 40 minute, level 2 ultrasound. It was truly amazing. They could see everything, the chambers of the heart, the brain, the stomach (which was full!), the kidneys and even the blood flow from the organs to ensure they were working properly. In addition, our baby does have sex organs, but we elected not to find out what kind. All-in-all, the technician said everything looked great and was working perfect. The news made me cry, it was so great to hear. It was amazing. And to top it off, not only did Brian get to watch the show, but they also let my mom come in, too. (My folks stayed an extra couple days so mom could go to my appointment.) And the technician gave her a little print out picture of the baby's profile to take home with her. Mom says every time her and my dad look at it they think it looks like me. Will our baby have the Holzapfel "ball on the end of the nose" nose? From what we see so far, it looks like it! Here's some pictures from the ultrasound (which again, are pictures of the already blurry pictures they gave me. So I apologize if they look like a lot of nothing to you, but I promise, it's our baby.)

I have no idea how to flip these images, but this one is a profile of the baby.
This shows the baby's whole body. The head is at the top and you can see his/her hand and leg sticking up toward the right of the picture. I think s/he was kicking my bladder to get it out of the way because they made me drink so much water before the ultrasound.

As for me, I've been feeling great. Got a little sluggish over the holidays, but that was probably from being off for a week, eating turkey and just being plain lazy. My belly (some other parts!) are growing and I am feeling the little guy/gal move every day. I LOVE the way it feels!

Click here for the 19 week baby update from BabyCenter.com